Denby Dale Nursery School

Inspection Report Denby Dale Nursery School

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107594 Unique Reference Number Kirklees LEA 277785 Inspection number 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005 Inspection dates Mr Joe Peacock CfBT Lead Inspector Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Wakefield Road School address Nursery Type of school Denby Dale Community School category Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD8 8RX 3 to 5 Age range of pupils

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01484 222915 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01484 222965 Fax number 74 Number on roll Mr Robert Allen Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Penny Khan Headteacher 26 June 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 277785 9 November 2005 - 3 to 5 10 November 2005 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one additional inspector.

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Description of the school

The school includes different kinds of provision catering for children aged three to five years. This inspection focuses on the provision for the three to five year olds, funded by the Local Authority. The quality of the day-care provision is the focus of a separate inspection. In this smaller than average nursery school with 70 children on roll, all attend part-time. However, the 16 children who need full-time day care are fully integrated into the morning or afternoon sessions, giving them a seamless day. All children are from a white British background. The proportion with learning difficulties and/or disabilities (LDD) is very low. Attainment on entry to the nursery is broadly in line with that expected for children of this age but about 40 % have skills which are above those expected. A new headteacher has been appointed since the previous inspection. The school is working towards an Investors in People award.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Denby Dale Nursery School, 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005

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Grade: 2

Denby Dale Nursery is a good school, which is giving good value for money. The outstanding leadership provided by the headteacher is successfully strengthening all aspects of the provision. Inspectors' judgements fully agree with the school's self-evaluation. The headteacher and staff very effectively promote the well - being of children and ensure that exciting learning experiences are provided, particularly when using the truly exceptional outdoor area. The quality of teaching and learning is good and as a result, all children make good progress and most will achieve the standards expected of them. In their personal, social and emotional development, their progress is very good. The freedom to choose activities, which interest them, is a key element along with the close adult support, which is readily available. However, at times, not all staff are successful in sufficiently challenging the most able children.

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Grade: 2

Children with learning difficulties are well provided for and make good progress. Curriculum planning is good and involves all staff. It takes account of individual children's needs well. Parents are very supportive of the school and appreciate the good level of care and quality of the education it provides. The effectiveness of the recently formed governing body is satisfactory, overall. They have attended training sessions and are keen to become more involved in the management of the school. However, the implementation of their roles and responsibilities is at an early stage of development. There has been good improvement since the last inspection and the school has good capacity to improve further.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Continue to monitor the quality of teaching and learning to ensure that the most able children are consistently challenged • Continue to work with the governors to help them further develop their roles and responsibilities.

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Grade: 2

Allowing children to choose their own activity from an exciting range of well-planned choices and supporting them closely as they work is a very effective strategy for this age range. As a result, children of all ability levels make good progress. By the end of their time in the nursery, most are well on their way to achieving the early learning goals in each area of learning. In their personal, social and emotional development, children make very good progress. This is because each child is allocated a key worker from the time they enter the nursery and a high priority is given to ensuring each child's well - being. As confidence grows in this supportive and rich learning environment, children's speaking and listening skills advance quickly. Although they generally make good progress, the most able are not sufficiently challenged on occasions by time-consuming activities such as putting coloured pegs in a pegboard.

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Grade: 2

2 Inspection Report: Denby Dale Nursery School, 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005 Children also make exceptional progress in design and making and in their writing skills. Their creativity is facilitated by a wide range of materials readily available and all use scissors and modelling tools most capably. Writing is context based and children write for a purpose. It flows freely from their creative work and role-play situations as they create tickets to ride to grandma's house in the cardboard boxes outdoors or describe their outdoor 'wonderland' to a new member of staff in words and pictures.

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Grade: 2

Children's well - being is of paramount importance to each of the caring members of staff. As a result, children's personal development is promoted well. Most have a good attitude to learning and behave well. Their independence is promoted very effectively as children are allowed to make their own choices about activities, enabling them to follow their own interests. Giving this freedom of choice and the responsibility for their own learning has a significant impact on children's social and moral development, which are both areas of strength. Promoting children's cultural development is a current priority as meticulous assessment records highlighted that progress was not as strong as in other areas. As a result, provision is good and children now have a satisfactory knowledge of the festivals celebrated in other world religions. Staff ensure that safe practices are followed and are quick to stop children running

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Grade: 2

across the class. Children make good use of computers, digital cameras and have fun using metal detectors to find 'treasure' hidden outdoors. This is giving them a valuable introduction to modern technology and equipping them with valuable skills for the future. Attendance is good. In the questionnaires, one parent said that her daughter came home full of enthusiasm and another that her child had so much fun that she couldn't wait to return the next day.

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good. The teaching of personal, social and emotional development is a particular strength. Staff are consistent in their expectations of behaviour and relationships between children and staff are respectful and good. Teachers and nursery nurses work effectively as a team. The nursery nurses are an integral part of the teaching staff and provide high quality support for groups of children as their nominated key workers. All staff plan in detail together, each week. This gives everyone a clear focus on the learning objectives. However, challenge and expectations at times could be higher for all pupils. For example, in group work staff could extend discussions with children. All staff make good use of modern technology to support children's learning. Very good use is made of the outdoor environment. Each session, half of the staff are outdoors, 3 Inspection Report: Denby Dale Nursery School, 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005

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Grade: 2

helping to provide interesting and exciting activities in the Spooky Den with torches or in the wooded area, looking for signs of autumn. Detailed assessments are carried out which feed into the planning cycle so that previous learning is successfully built upon. The day-to-day observations undertaken by staff are an extremely valuable tool enabling all staff to plan work, which meets the children's needs.

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Grade: 2

Choice and putting children at the centre of their own learning is a fundamental part of the school's philosophy for learning. All children have access to a well thought out range of exciting activities from the moment they arrive in the morning. Opportunities for creative development are well provided for and the first steps to writing are successfully promoted by enjoyable and interesting activities and role-play experiences. Those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are guided well to activities, which will address their particular needs. The exceptional outdoor area is used to successfully enhance all areas of the curriculum. Good use is also made of the locality; for example, a shopping trip to buy vegetables to make soup. The nursery is well resourced. However, there are few wheeled toys for children to use with a partner. Indoors, curricular opportunities for physical development are more limited by the lack of space. A former sunken sandpit severely restricts access

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Grade: 2

All staff are very supportive and ensure that every child feels special and valued in the nursery. As a result, there is a good level of care and support. Relationships are a particular strength and children quite naturally call staff by their first names. This in no way detracts from the respect each has for the other. Guidance for all children is good. Great care is taken to meet the needs of children with learning difficulties and there is good liaison with parents and outside agencies. All parents are well informed about their children's progress through termly meetings with their child's key worker. Parents are particularly appreciative of the Record of Experiences Book, which provides a comprehensive record of progress through detailed observations of children at work. Thorough assessment procedures ensure tasks are generally well matched to the capability of individual children enabling them to make good progress.

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Grade: 2

Attendance is regularly checked and reasons for absence investigated.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good, overall. The leadership of the headteacher is 4 Inspection Report: Denby Dale Nursery School, 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005 outstanding as she has a very clear vision of what needs improving and is passionate about the direction the school should take to ensure the best possible provision for every child who attends. Since taking up her appointment the headteacher has overcome some substantial difficulties and successfully strengthened many aspects. There is a good capacity to continue to improve. Good procedures have been introduced to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the school. There are plans to further extend the role and responsibilities of the supportive senior leadership team to involve every member of staff in the process of identifying strengths and areas for development. School self-evaluation is accurate. The current School Improvement Plan identifies the correct priorities but the criteria by

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Grade: 2

which the success of school actions can be measured, are not sufficiently detailed. The school is fully inclusive meeting the needs of the children and parents. Parents and governors views are regularly sought and taken into account. The recently formed governors are very supportive and keen to help the school move forward. However, their roles and responsibilities are at an early stage of development and at present are satisfactory. The budget surplus is to be used to further develop the integrated provision and extend provision for 2-3 year olds. 5 Inspection Report: Denby Dale Nursery School, 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005 .

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Denby Dale Nursery School, 9 November 2005 to 10 November 2005

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Overall

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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learners?

NA 2 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 2 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well do learners achieve? NA 2 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 2 The behaviour of learners NA 2 The attendance of learners NA 2 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 2 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 2 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 2 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 2 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 2 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 2 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 3 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy

Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams NA Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form NA Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

How lucky you are coming to this lovely nursery school! Thank you for showing me all the things you have to do each day. I really enjoyed my visit and wish that I could have stayed longer. The things I liked best of all were: - what a great job of running the school your headteacher is doing - how hard your teachers and nursery nurses work to give you lots of enjoyable and interesting things to do. Computers are great, aren't they? - watching how quickly you found something to do that you liked and how well you concentrated on it - how much you enjoyed yourselves doing all those exciting things outdoors like using metal detectors or making spells in the Spooky Den - seeing how well your teachers take care of you and how good you are for them. I have asked your teachers to try and make sure that you all do as well as you can in everything you do and that governors continue to work with the headteacher to make your Nursery even

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

better. Keep up the good work and thank you again for making me feel so welcome in your school.

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